Electric shavers have a stationary apertured screen or guard behind which a driven blade is reciprocated or rotated to shave the user by shearing the individual hairs which project through the openings in the screen. The cutting blade is caused to move rapidly while pressed against the inside surface of the screen. The cutting blade has openings which permit the hairs which pass through the screen to also pass through the cutting blade whereby the hairs are sheared as the cutting blade passes across the screen openings. These openings are in the top of the screen and extend down the sides of the screen below the plane of the inside surface of the screen where the shearing action takes place.
For efficient shaving, ideally, the hairs should be erect and generally normal to the skin. However, this is an ideal only, since in many cases the hair grows at an acute angle to the skin and, therefore, as the shaver head approaches the hair, the hair is folded down between the exterior surface of the screen and the skin surface and never passes through the screen openings. The result is a poor shave, because only a portion of the hairs are actually cut. This has been the source of considerable irritation and frustration to both the users and the manufacturers of the equipment.